Major corporate health issues

When it comes to employee health issues, companies often find themselves in a difficult position. This is particularly true for engineers and managers, for whom doctors are the only people with legitimacy in this field. As a result, the prevailing attitude is mainly reactive when crisis situations arise. Preventive actions are frequently seen as unproductive expenses generated by multiple regulatory obligations. The main focus is on safety issues. As far as health is concerned, while chemical, physical and biological risk factors are better taken into account, organizational factors are less often analyzed and managed.

Although risk assessment is an obligation, it is rarely applied, due to a lack of skills and a lack of understanding of the reasons for it. And yet, although it is the responsibility of the manager, the benefits of this approach are much broader: it is the basis for planning preventive actions. Risk mapping does not necessarily require complex and costly surveys. A great deal of data is routinely available for this purpose, but little use is made of it from a health perspective. Not only is risk measurement essential to risk management, it is also a prerequisite for fruitful social dialogue.

At present, health is not a priority when it comes to employment, remuneration, promotion and industrial relations. Companies do not have a clear vision of the role of occupational medicine, of the respective importance of individual and environmental factors influencing health, or of the role of the medical care system. However, this situation is changing. On the one hand, the importance of quality of life at work, or well-being at work, is receiving increasing attention, in response to strong social expectations. On the other hand, health is fully integrated into corporate social responsibility and sustainable development initiatives, the benefits of which are increasingly well understood by companies and are the subject of certification standards.

This article aims to provide a framework to help companies invest effectively in the health of their employees, over and above their regulatory obligations. The first section explains the main reasons for the difficulties encountered. The second section presents an overview of the issues and major health problems to which companies need to pay attention. The final section proposes a course of action to help companies better manage these issues, and turn them into a performance driver.